/m/oakland

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So obviously Heyman is a douche and in the wrong here. Both games were sellouts and even if the A's controlled ticketing in San Francisco they would almost certainly have less fans in the yard.

But WTF is Doolittle talking about? Both teams have open bullpens. It's better for the fans anyway, since pitchers aren't warming up behind a fence. It's better aesthetically too.

It's also indisputable which park is better. The Coliseum is a dump. Mt. Davis is an abomination and it's so poorly maintained that a less than 20 year old structure looks as old as the rest of the stadium. The A's are responsible for not putting in a dollar more than necessary in maintenance, but it's an awful hybrid ballpark.

Having a shitty stadium is part of what makes the A's scruffy underdogs. The Giants used to have that vibe, too. When the A's do draw a big crowd--not often enough, I know--it's a great atmosphere. Heyman really is a mega gigantic douche, though. New stadiums are nice and I look forward to the A's having one, but how many amenities do you need to sit in a chair and watch a game? The Coliseum is fine.

I have to say, I'm enjoying the kinda neat split four game series thing they are doing for the natural rivals games this year. Six games was always too many. But one series leaves out a park. This is kinda fun.

Of course, it does increase the possibility of a need for a split day night double header, but how awesome would that be anyway? 1 p.m. in Oakland, 7 p.m. in San Fran. 1 p.m. in Anaheim, 7 p.m. in LA. Wait, better make it 11 a.m. in Anaheim...

the Oakland stadium has the great combo ability of being able to take the bart almost right up to the stadium entrance followed by getting off the train and buying an awesome seat at the window with no line.

I have told this story I don't know how many times but I bought 5 tickets for the game give game against the yanks the day of the game about 30 rows up behind home plate. that was great. didn't like the outcome but still, great.

and I saw another playoff game at Oakland where I sat second row back from the field next to the first base dugout for what I think was 25 bucks from a guy trying to dump his tickets.

Oakland is the best for great seats at giveaway prices and seeing an ok to good team. just the best

Is the #shame hashtag really necessary, especially since he used the actual word in the tweet?

One of those little things that annoys me.

Can someone give me a quick explanation of what the heck the hashtag is and what's its purpose? I mean, I get that it's Twitter, but is it supposed to be some sort of categorization? But from what I gather, you can just make up anything you want.

The hash tag serves multiple masters. The original use was just for searchability. So if I tweet about iPads, I could add #ipad and then people who search on that tag will see it.

It's also used for a variety of short-term verbal games. You might see "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Imperial Senate Debate About Tariffs #StarWarsBroadway", and then if you click the hashtag, you'll see other people's contributions. This format has also been applied to single-topic tweets, where you can make a joke out of the hashtag that reconfigure the way people read the context of the tweet.

Then there are straight-up hashtag goofs, playing with the format. Comically long hashtags that obviously aren't meant to be taken seriously, for example. Or when the last sentence of a tweet is a single word, it sometimes just looks better as a hashtag.

That's where this example comes in. No one's searching on #shame (and no one's filtering it out, either, which is another reason to use them), so my guess is that Heyman just wanted to do a little extra head-shaking at the end.

Then there are straight-up hashtag goofs, playing with the format. Comically long hashtags that obviously aren't meant to be taken seriously, for example. Or when the last sentence of a tweet is a single word, it sometimes just looks better as a hashtag.

That's where this example comes in. No one's searching on #shame (and no one's filtering it out, either, which is another reason to use them), so my guess is that Heyman just wanted to do a little extra head-shaking at the end.

I think this is such a lame played-out way joke/writing style, especially because people use it in places other than twitter.

When the A's do get a new stadium I hope they're smart enough to study the past. There's a right way to build a stadium (Baltimore, Pittsburgh) and a wrong way to do it (Miami). Pick a scenic location. Leave off the gimmicks. Design it to be a place to watch a baseball game.

I just looked Doolittle up and man is he kicking ass this year (small sample, of course). Unfortunately if he keeps it up he'll soon be the closer and then he won't get to pitch as many high-leverage innings.

I just looked Doolittle up and man is he kicking ass this year (small sample, of course). Unfortunately if he keeps it up he'll soon be the closer and then he won't get to pitch as many high-leverage innings.

Absolutely wrong. The closer's innings are almost always the highest-leverage innings on the team.

Also possible that because Anderson struggled so badly in most of his starts pre-stress fracture that he was constantly pitching with RISP. I'm no astrologist but that'll bump your LI, won't it?

I would like to enthusiastically cosign #s 3, 4 and 9 in this thread. I was just listing my favorite Coliseum memories yesterday in the Rivera thread. Yeah, the place could stand to be better maintained and maybe a little less institutional-looking, but on the whole its only real flaw is that abominable Mount Davis. Back in the day, it was a truly beautiful place to watch a game.

And I think we forget it's like the 4th or 5th oldest park in MLB by now.

Lastly, I prefer open bullpens by far. More interaction between fans and players is a good thing (unless Frank Francisco is around). I almost always sit down the first base line near the 'pen and the couple of sections up front get really into the "beeeeeOOOOOP.... BEEEEEooooop" thing when a visiting reliever's warming up.

When I want to feel like I'm a million miles away from the action, I watch baseball at the Oakland Coliseum. Tightwad Hill above Memorial Stadium has a better view of the field than half the seats at the Coliseum.

It enclosed the stadium and cut off what had been a nice view of the Oakland Hills. It ruined what used to be a very fun bleacher culture. The seats are really far away from the field now when they used to be right on top of the action. Etc etc etc.

17 - I think the point he was making had to do more with the "How the hell do you build a stadium specifically for baseball and forget a major part of that...perhaps too concerned with making corporate stiffs happy and comfy and not too concerned with crucial aspects of the game"

In fact, looking at the context, it really seems to fit. Because, I mean, how the hell DO you forget something like that???

The Coliseum is an acceptable place to watch a baseball game, but it is also likely the worst stadium in the majors. I think sometimes we forget how shitty some of the old stadia used to be.

The bottom line is that if you really like baseball, you will go to baseball games and enjoy it regardless of stadium. What the Coliseum is terrible at is attracting people who are casual fans or non-fans, because it offers absolutely nothing aside from the opportunity to watch a baseball games (no beautiful scenery, no gimmicks for kids, terrible food options, etc.). Since most of the attendance at any game is non-hardcore fans, and even hardcore fans don't go to games that often alone (imagine pitching the Coliseum to a non-hardcore fan friend compared to AT&T), you end up without a lot of butts in the seats.

17 - I think the point he was making had to do more with the "How the hell do you build a stadium specifically for baseball and forget a major part of that...perhaps too concerned with making corporate stiffs happy and comfy and not too concerned with crucial aspects of the game"

In fact, looking at the context, it really seems to fit. Because, I mean, how the hell DO you forget something like that???

They didn't. There's a big empty space under the right field arcade where they could move the bullpens if they wanted to. They don't want to.

For those with experience - recently relocated to Bay Area from Chicago. Big White Sox fan. Considering attending one or more games this weekend at the Coliseum. But you hear LOTS of things about how you can't go to an Oakland game (Raiders or A's, at least) as a visiting fan/wearing visiting team colors.

I have sort of always assumed that Oakland has its share of morons, like any fanbase, but that it isn't anything to worry about in particular.

But, I would like thoughts from the gathering. Thanks in advance for anything that can be offered.

If it matters, I will not be bringing any children, but would likely bring the wife.

The A's crowds (using the term loosely) are family-friendly, baseball-knowledgable, and will engage in good-natured banter, but would be extremely unlikely to harass a fan in the opponent's garb. (Especially -- please don't take this the wrong way -- White Sox garb. Nobody in the Bay Area gives a rip about the White Sox.)

then imagine somebody built an unusually ugly nine-hundred-foot-tall football concourse over all the good parts

That's really the thing. Mount Davis is so ungodly high and so completely out of scale with the rest of the park that even if it was incredibly beautiful which it isn't and wasn't blocking what used to be a fantastic view which it is it would still look ridiculous.

The A's crowds (using the term loosely) are family-friendly, baseball-knowledgable, and will engage in good-natured banter, but would be extremely unlikely to harass a fan in the opponent's garb. (Especially -- please don't take this the wrong way -- White Sox garb. Nobody in the Bay Area gives a rip about the White Sox.)

Raiders crowds, whole nother story.

Kinda what I thought. And definitely not taken the wrong way. I'm used to being a fan of "the other Chicago team." When we lived in LA, if I had a nickel for every time someone, upon learning I was (a) from Chicago and (b) a baseball fan, exclaimed "oh, you must love Wrigley Field!"

That's really the thing. Mount Davis is so ungodly high and so completely out of scale with the rest of the park that even if it was incredibly beautiful which it isn't and wasn't blocking what used to be a fantastic view which it is it would still look ridiculous.

Yes, it looks rather like a cartoon drawing from the grand old days of Mad magazine, or something. Not exactly an architectural triumph.

The A's crowds (using the term loosely) are family-friendly, baseball-knowledgable, and will engage in good-natured banter, but would be extremely unlikely to harass a fan in the opponent's garb. (Especially -- please don't take this the wrong way -- White Sox garb. Nobody in the Bay Area gives a rip about the White Sox.)

Raiders crowds, whole nother story.

I haven't been to an A's game there, but, in the Raiders' Black Hole, I saw a woman who appeared to have Down Syndrome nearly attacked because she was wearing a Patriots jersey.

When I go to Raiders games (about once every other year, and I can never figure out why) I always wear black and root ostentatiously for the home team.

I've been to roughly 80% of the Red Sox games in Oakland in the past 10 years and I've only had a problem once, and that was Game 5 of the 2003 ALDS and I was lugging a HUGE cardboard sign. Unless you define people loudly yelling "#### BOSTON" at you as a big problem. That happens pretty frequently. But that's well within the band of expected behavior, right?

The A's crowds (using the term loosely) are family-friendly, baseball-knowledgable, and will engage in good-natured banter, but would be extremely unlikely to harass a fan in the opponent's garb. (Especially -- please don't take this the wrong way -- White Sox garb. Nobody in the Bay Area gives a rip about the White Sox.)

Completely agree. I've never seen anything stronger than "joshing"/banter in the stands at A's games, the last 10-15 years, anyway.

It's much, much worse at Giants games, especially Giants/Dodgers. I went to Kershaw/Zito a couple of weeks ago with my Dad, and three fights broke out in the stands (that I saw), more threatened, lots of drunk yahoos and people throwing things like food and cups of beer.

For those with experience - recently relocated to Bay Area from Chicago. Big White Sox fan. Considering attending one or more games this weekend at the Coliseum. But you hear LOTS of things about how you can't go to an Oakland game (Raiders or A's, at least) as a visiting fan/wearing visiting team colors.

I have sort of always assumed that Oakland has its share of morons, like any fanbase, but that it isn't anything to worry about in particular.

But, I would like thoughts from the gathering. Thanks in advance for anything that can be offered.

If it matters, I will not be bringing any children, but would likely bring the wife.

Before they had the tarp on the upper deck, there would often be packs of Raiders fans attending A's games dressed in Raiders gear -- it's a lot cheaper than Raiders games, that's for sure. It was totally fine to wear the baseball opponent's gear, but I definitely saw them on occasion heckle the #### out of people wearing Broncos and Chiefs jerseys (in a bad-natured way, although it never seemed likely to boil over into actual violence -- but certainly at Raiders games when they form the majority I'd expect some bullying).

Anyway, Steve is right on about wearing the White Sox jersey, you may get into some good baseball discussions (especially in the bleachers), definitely won't be harassed.

It's pretty sad what's happened to Raider fandom. In the 70's it was a real blue collar fanbase that was more like the fanbase of an SEC team and the players themselves seemed a real part of the community. Unfortunately, it came back from LA something much uglier and theatrical as if the mythos of the Raiders as a "tough" team with "tough" fans got wrapped up in the crotch grabbing machismo of gangsta rap set to a soundtrack by GWAR. Warriors and A's fans are pretty great but the Raiders...yech. And man, I loved the Raiders when I was a little kid. I used to buy my football cards at Jim Otto's liquor store!